Essay: If you want to be more creative, humor us

The realization hit me during a typical late night on the fourth floor, known for housing all of the “creatives” at the advertising agency where I was creative director.

My partner and I were trying to come up with an original idea for a big client. As always, we wanted something funny, inventive and completely new. We looked at each other in silence, looked at our laptops, and then looked at each other again. I looked across the hall. I saw two other people trying to think of an original idea by awkwardly staring at each other in silence. They seemed tired, annoyed and lonely. They did not look inspired, and they definitely were not having fun. That’s when I realized: That’s what I must look like. Utterly and completely uninspired. And utterly unfun.

Therein lies the frustrating dichotomy that plagues not just the ad industry, but the majority of companies in the U.S.: Since the days of Peggy and Don from “Mad Men,” there has been an eager dependence on individual genius to spark creative ideas while working in a solemn, sterile office environment. In reality, though, there just isn’t anything inspiring or creative about staring at the same walls, talking to the same person or visiting the same websites, looking for inspiration for new ideas. And yet, these are widely accepted methods, used by every single “creative” agency and most companies in corporate America.

The good news is that since the “Mad Men” era, research has helped explain how humans generate creative ideas. We have a better understanding than ever of the environments, relationships and brain states most likely to elicit novel insights. Brain-imaging studies from Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University reveal that a relaxed brain in a “mind-wandering” state is ripe for developing imaginative concepts. Psychologists from the University of Chicago have demonstrated the critical importance of the “flow state,” the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment of the process. It is in this precise sweet spot, scientists tell us, that humans are most likely to generate innovative and original ideas.

Clearly, the situation on the fourth floor of the ad agency was not at all conducive to reaching that sweet spot. For one thing, I wasn’t enjoying the process at all, and I had a strong suspicion that plenty of my colleagues were feeling the same way. So a small group of us left our jobs to design new and radically different ways to generate creative ideas, based on the available research. We created Funworks, helping employees learn to reach the “flow state,” and flex their creative muscles.

Since the days of Don and Peggy from “Mad Men,” there has been an eager
dependence on individual genius to spark creative ideas while working in
a solemn, sterile office environment.

Photo: Frank Ockenfels 3, AMC

After a couple of years of research and experimentation, here’s what we’ve learned: There are three tried-and-true concepts that will increase the chances of achieving flow and boosting creative output on complex tasks.

The first is collaboration done well. This may seem obvious, but in the modern workplace, collaboration often means sitting through endless meetings, sharing ideas through PowerPoint slides and waiting to be quietly judged by your peers. Nothing could do more to sap creative genius. True collaboration, when done well, looks less like sitting passively in a room full of people and more like an energetic conversation with teammates so eager to jump in that they cut each other off to speak. If employees could collaborate with their team members by letting loose, speaking freely and building on each other’s ideas, they would solve problems faster, more creatively and in a more satisfying way. Thomas Edison wasn’t one person. He represented a team of people working together for years.

The second is to expose employees as much as possible to novel stimuli. This doesn’t mean that the office should be filled with flashing lights and speakers pumping out techno music, but it does mean that employees need to get out of their comfort zones (and windowless offices) more regularly. Exposure to something new, say, by putting together groups of people who don’t usually talk to each other, or working in a different location, would result in ideas that build on each other and push the bounds of the imagination.

The third concept is relaxation, including heavy doses of fun and laughter. Study after study finds that one of the surest ways to achieve creative greatness is to be in a relaxed state. Think about it: Often, some of the best ideas occur to us while we’re on a run, in the shower or having a beer with a friend. We rarely think of great ideas while hunkered over a laptop, answering long e-mail chains, in a cubicle, in a boring meeting, or in complete isolation. We need to be having a good time. Or at least a little fun.

There’s an important distinction to be made here: Having fun at work does not mean cool hoverboards, guest chefs and Foosball tables on every floor on a luxe corporate campus. The work itself needs to be more fun and engaging. In fact, those other perks can be distractions. If people can actually look forward to working, instead of merely stomaching it, productivity will soar. Harvard Business School studies show that intrinsic motivation derived from work satisfaction (as opposed to pay or perks) is directly linked to innovation.

But how do you create an office environment that exposes your employees to collaboration done well, novel stimuli and relaxed laughter all at once? Well, you can’t, really, unless you’re the lion tamer at a circus. But what would happen if we put our clients in a new and unfamiliar room with unexpected creative partners who are experts at promoting and reaching that flow state?

It turns out that the best creative experts, in our experience, are improvisational sketch artists and professional comedians. These are people who are really engaging, whip smart and well ... funny. They act as a creative lubricant, immediately breaking down barriers and getting everyone in the room excited about the project at hand. They’re not afraid to throw out crazy ideas, which makes it easier for employees to turn off their self-critical voice and share new possibilities unabashedly.

So what happens when you bring a group of comedians into a room with corporate suits? Plenty. Specifically, we’ve seen teams from a range of traditional companies, including Pandora, Clorox, Fox Studios and HP, collaborate in new ways. They share some laughs, and that leads to more trust, cuts through company bias, and fosters an environment where people feel comfortable tossing more innovative ideas into the ring. They are able to reach consensus much faster.

When it comes to increasing creative output in the modern workplace, companies need to take fun much more seriously. If your company is struggling, it may be time to send in the clowns.

Paul Charney is CEO and co-founder of Funworks, a creative agency built around extreme collaboration and design thinking, in San Francisco. He is co-founder of Killing My Lobster, a San Francisco sketch comedy troupe. He is a graduate of Brown University.

Editor’s note: Ideas, an essay series, lets Bay Area leaders share their insights into business topics every other Monday. To submit an essay, send a proposal to business@sfchronicle.com.